It seems like the more we know about what it looks like to be overtrained, the less we know about its beginning. Many studies have shed light onto the symptoms associated to OT and the relationships among them; but the same can’t be said about its risk factors.
We already covered the basics of overtraining in another article but today we’ll be talking about some of the internal and external risk factors that may help you discover if you’re overtrained.
Individual differences
Among the individual differences that could play into having a higher risk of suffering OT syndrome, these would appear to be more relevant:
- Competitiveness: a stronger desire to outperform other athletes could influence not only pacing during competition but also training. Outtraining your rivals can be the product of a high level of competitiveness by the following logic: if I train more than you do, I’ll be better than you.
- Achievement motivation: this type of motivation leads to one of two achievement-related attitudes, task-involvement or ego-involvement. The latter implies that the goal the athlete seeks is to demonstrate superior abilities (Butler, 1999), i.e., becoming the Fittest on Earth. If being the best is the primary goal, training more often could be deemed necessary to maintain self-worth and avoid failure.
- Perfectionism: as discussed in another article, perfectionism is manifested by concerns and efforts. Both of these can influence the appearance of OT: excessive worrying can lead to higher anxiety levels and a significant increase in effort expenditure can cause physiological overtraining.
- Perception of programming: during an interview I had with Tim Paulson (3x CrossFit Games competitor) we discussed the importance of finding a training program you trust. It dawned on me that athletes who doubt their programming in any way could be driven to adding “junk volume”, switching programs way too often or simply feeling “trapped” by it, possibly increasing risk of being overtrained.
- Past experience: competitive outcomes (whether positive or negative) can also affect the risk of overtraining. For example, Sara Sigmundsdottir lost the championship title on the last day of competition in 2015 and spent the next year training like a mad dog so that wouldn’t ever happen again. This lead to her being overtrained by the time she made it back to the Games in 2016.
Anxiety & stress
OT, otherwise known as “unexplained underperformance syndrome” (Budgett et. al, 2000) could be precipitated by a simple idea: what if I’m falling behind? This seemingly harmless thought could be at the very core of a well-known process called anxiety.
Cognitive anxiety is commonly verbalized through what-ifs, and these represent an excessive worry towards a threat (whether real or not). In the case of athletes – usually at the elite level -, they tend to question if their training is up to par with the rest of the field. While this worry is quite common, it can become hazardous if it’s too intense.
And of course if we’re talking anxiety, we have to look into stress processes as well since they tend to go hand in hand. In relation to the previous what-if, the athlete can believe they’re training at the same level as others, but the follow-up concern could be: what if my training is not enough to be the best?
Stress responses are initiated once the athlete perceives their resources are not enough to complete a certain task. The body will then work towards enhancing these resources in order to adapt to the challenge. But if the athlete continuously gives unrealistic appraisals of their resources, the stress process becomes chronic, unleashing a manifold of psychological and physical symptoms.
Sport characteristics & athlete’s environment
Every sport has its characteristics and paired with the effect of the environment we could be looking at the following risk factors associated to becoming overtrained:
- Sport-specific culture: one of the strongest paradigms in CrossFit is that you cannot have a weakness. And of course, competitive athletes tend to take this to the limit. Fraser rowing 5k a day for an entire year or Heppner practicing rope climbs everyday during 2015 are perfect examples of this.
- Sport modality: it’s been proven that OT happens more often in individual sports, among professional athletes and in endurance-type sports (Budgett et. al, 1991).
- Social pressure: the expectations set by family and friends could also be a factor. If the pressure perceived by the athlete is too high, this could influence their desire to increase the intensity, duration and frequency of their training in order to meet those expectations and avoid disappointment.
Why should I be aware of these risk factors?
Both sport-related anxiety and stress are very common – especially among elite athletes -, so differentiating a normal concern from the initiation of a mental disorder become a serious task. That’s why it’s of utter importance to stay alert and keep track of your mental well-being throughout the season.
Not every athlete will present the same vulnerabilities and, therefore, one must be on the lookout for the earliest symptoms. If you ever catch yourself worrying about not training enough or starting to feel helpless, don’t belittle these thoughts and reach out to your support system. However common these feelings may be, they can still precipitate an OT syndrome.
- Budgett, R. (1990). Overtraining syndrome. British journal of sports medicine, 24(4), 231-236. - Budgett, R., Newsholme, E., Lehmann, M., Sharp, C., Jones, D., Peto, T., Collins, D., Nerurkar, R. & White, P. (2000). Redefining the overtraining syndrome as the unexplained underperformance syndrome. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 34(1), 67-68. - Butler, R. (1999). Information seeking and achievement motivation in middle childhood and adolescence: The role of conceptions of ability. Developmental Psychology, 35, 146-163.